Mt. SAC, Pasadena Topple ELAC in Rare SCC North Men's Basketball Shift

After seven straight seasons of capturing the South Coast Conference North Division crown, East Los Angeles College is already in a rare 0-2 hole to open conference play in 2024.

The Huskies, the state #27-ranked team at 13-7 overall, had a 10-game win streak, including a perfect 6-0 trip through the SCC South crossovers before Pasadena City ended the program's 28-game, SCC winning streak going back to 2019. 

The red-hot, #25-ranked Lancers (13-7) are on a 6-game win streak and beat ELAC for the first time in nine years, 86-74, in the North opener on Jan. 24. Then #10-ranked Mt. San Antonio (18-2) stung the Huskies again, winning 79-64, two nights later. It was Mt. SAC's first victory v. ELAC since 2018, breaking its 9-game, head-to-head losing streak v. the Monterey Park school.

Meanwhile, the South Division, which figured to have #24 Los Angeles Southwest (13-7) as the frontrunner instead has both defending champion LA Harbor (7-13) and Cerritos (11-9) leading the race, both at 2-0. 

The Cougars had won five in a row before both ELAC and Pasadena handed them back-to-back defeats. After upsetting Mt. SAC, 69-67, in the final crossover, LASW was then upset by Harbor, 67-65, in the division opener. LA Southwest followed that with a 43-point performance from state-leading scorer Chidi Obichere to get past El Camino, 84-82. 

Cerritos has won four in a row, earning conference wins over El Camino and Compton while Harbor routed Long Beach by 30 points after its win over LA Southwest.

Back to the North, LA Trade-Tech (12-8) reached the century mark in points in back-to-back victories over LBCC (108-105) and Rio Hondo (107-61) before Pasadena tripped it up, 79-67. The Beavers scored an amazing 146 points (made 19 shots from 3-point range) in a victory over Barstow on Dec. 20.

Conference Leaders:

Scoring-Obichere, LA Southwest, 24.6 points per game
Rebounding-Justin Haynes, LA Southwest, 11.1 average
FG Percentage-Nick Hopkins, Mt. San Antonio, 59.5 percent
FT Percentage-Daniel Michelini-Jackson, East LA, 87.8 percent
3-Point FG Percentage-Deen Abdur-Rahmann, Pasadena, 44.8 percent
Total 3-Pointers-Luke Olmstead, Los Angeles City, 61
Assists-Jalen Vazquez, Pasadena, 4.8 average
Steals-Mike Bilal, Rio Hondo, Franklyn Chambers, Long Beach, 2.3 average
Blocks-Solomon Ray, LA Southwest, 2.2 average

Recap by Robert Lewis, SCC SID